When Anne Michaelsen Yahn was asked to decorate a beach house for a couple on Little Balboa Island, an hour south of Los Angeles, she wanted to avoid the clichés that can bedevil a home on the water. “I didn’t want it to be seashells and blue and white, like every other house,” she says.

Fortunately, her clients concurred, opting for a place that used vernacular beach house details but in a more masculine, contemporary way. The resulting home has the rugged allure of a mountain retreat, tempered by enough nautical touches (and stellar views) to make you feel like you’re cruising the coastline in a cabin.

Houzz at a GlanceWho lives here: A family with 3 children ranging from late teens to 20sLocation: Little Balboa Island, CaliforniaSize: 3,011square feet (280 square meters); 3 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms

After 10 years of renting houses on the island, the owners wanted a place of their own, so they bought an old beach cottage and lived in it for a while to understand the impact of light, sound and heat on the site.

The old house couldn’t be updated to meet current codes, so the owners (he’s a real estate developer) commissioned architect Robert Sinclair to design a new home for the site that maximized the lot’s limited space and the stunning vistas of Newport Harbor.

There are touches of seashell and coral, but they’re overshadowed by rugged expanses of Palomino limestoneand raw wood, along with neutral furnishings covered in durable commercial or all-weather fabrics. “If someone jumped in the bay and sat down, you wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, God, don’t sit in that chair!” Yahn says.

Equally resilient are the floors, covered in seagrass limestone. The lightly honed finish resists slipping but still exposes the traces of shells and fossils embedded in the surface.

Given the strict height limitations, the main-floor ceiling had to serve as the subfloor for the upstairs, so there was no room for recessed lighting. LED cove lighting skirts the beams, offering soft ambient light at night and limiting reflections in the windows. Yahn augmented this with tall standing lamps — a bold gesture, but they fit the scale of the furniture and create perfect task lighting.

Yahn is no fan of placing TVs over fireplaces, but it made sense to consolidate the television and fireplace in one spot and orient the furniture toward that, given the scenery competing for attention. To minimize the TV’s impact, electrical connections were recessed into the wall behind the thin screen.

The limestone on the fireplace is repeated on the corner posts, which support a balcony off the study above. R.W. Lewis Builders integrated steel beams into the structure to permit uninterrupted spans.

Tile walls seemed like a natural for the master bath, but Yahn gave them a nautical twist, picking up the traces of seafoam green that dapple the marble slabs on the vanities. The glass tiles have a watery, reflective sheen that echoes the surface of the bay beyond.

Partway through the design process, a bedroom was converted into a bunk room to accommodate future grandchildren. Each berth has its own reading light, so guests can read in bed without disturbing others.

The harbor can get noisy, so the design team put a lounge off of the second-floor study instead of the master bedroom. Downy sofas from A. Rudin are covered in rich, durable mohair — perfect for a party or a nap.

The sliding doors on this level stack — they don’t retract into the wall, like on the floor below.

The rooftop deck is practically self-sufficient, with its own kitchen, seating area, dining table, daybed and bath. When the owners entertain, they load up a rolling cart with food and drink and take it up the elevator. Evenings often end with guests toasting marshmallows for s’mores in the outdoor fireplace.

Fantastic! I love the pocket doors and how they allow the living room to seem like it is both inside and outside at once. Almost like a rather large verandah!! I also like the repetitive usage of materials (e.g. the limestone), and the use of that crewelwork fabric is tastefully done! Thank you for sharing your home.

I'm not thinking this is a "Beach Cottage". Very familiar with Balboa Island and there are still plenty of traditional beach cottages left. This would be a "Beach Mansion". Love the colors though and the bunk room is perfect.

I have a feeling I would have preferred the original building. I dislike the main level. It feels dark and suburban to me. The master bath is like stepping back into the 70's....and not in a good way. The bedrooms, lounge and rooftop deck are gorgeous, however, and much more appropriate for a beach house IMO.

What a great home! The fabrics are beautiful, the design is clean, fresh and inviting. It's hard for me to tell where the house ends and the harbor begins. Just wonderful. What a delight--thanks for sharing.

I love almost everything about this glam-rustic house. The tiles and colors in the bathroom are great. Except the Tan marble around the shower entrance looks like raw plywood at 1st glance, I really thought it was unfinished until I saw the vanity-tops.

on the water on not, this house is stunning. Love every detail...except for the toaster on the floor practically but every inch of space is beautifully used. I like the not cute approach to beach/water locations very much. thank you for showing us this beauty.

What a knockout of a kitchen island! Saving that image to show potential clients. I'd love to build something like that for someone one day! In my own house I've gone a much different direction haha...

You had me at "beach". Moving right along to "Harbor views". Making a short "Port 'O Call" at the bunk room.

And then--an ELEVATOR.

I don't know WHY there is an elevator but for ME this would be the ONLY way I could have a multi story house (absent those awful dangle in mid air "stair chairs") so if I thought I was ALREADY in love---

Wow! I have more modest dreams for our beach house, a 250 sq ft project that is 100x more difficult to renovate than our main house up the hill. We've already spent a fortune of waterproofing the foundation and injecting foam to keep the porch from sinking in the sand. We've interviewed several contractors and still have not found the right one. Sigh!

Beautiful and classy. Small touches of oceana with decor, but not over done. Some people cannot resist the urge to fill their beach house with all kinds of tacky! We live on the South Coast of MA and have spent considerable time in St. John USVI so I have collected treasures that we display, but what I consider to be
in a tasteful manner.

I took cute to mean cloying...this house is smart in every sense of the word, not a cloying cutsie thing about it. Still has a lot of personality ... the views alone dictate a more minimal decorating style...but I'd hardly call this home minimal. Beautiful, airy, light filled, smart storage, comfortable.

This is the kind of space that just takes a back seat to the view. The only furnishings and lighting that doesn't really work for me is the living room, but overall a unique interpretation of water front style.